THE CONCRETE PILLOW

Nobody in Luke Lindstrom's family wants him to hire aging Indianapolis p.i. Deets Shanahan (The Iron Glove, 1992, etc.) to figure out who might be trying to kill him—even though two of the other quadruplets, Matthew and Mark, who once played high- school basketball with their brother Luke have already been crippled (Matthew) and killed (Mark) by suspicious falls from high places. Luke's father, trucker Red Lindstrom, tries to buy and threaten Shanahan off the case; Luke's born-again mother, Nancy Rae, orders him to give it up instantly; and even Luke himself seems to be having second thoughts when Shanahan first sees him sunk in heroin heaven. Then the fourth Lindstrom brother—John, naturally—falls from a window in Luke's apartment, and following a conference of his wildly dysfunctional family, Luke calls Shanahan off the case. With his own family problems to worry about—his rarely seen son and never-seen grandson are headed his way—you'd think Shanahan would have enough on his plate without the Lindstroms' troubles, even before a shooting that sends his body into a wheelchair and his mind spiraling back to 1982.... Interesting people, a solid mystery, and poignantly loopy domestic complications. Despite all the action, though, geriatric poster-child Shanahan—now in a fourth outing—doesn't seem feeble, just understandably world-weary.